1. Field
The present disclosure is generally related to a system and methods for configuring an image path of an image processing apparatus. More specifically, the present disclosure is generally related to selecting an output mode for an image processing apparatus so as to provide high productivity and high quality output image data.
2. Background
Image data comprises a number of pixels. Each pixel corresponds to a defined location in the image. Image data includes various color or gray levels. Each pixel of an image is assigned a number representing the amount of light or gray level for that space or that particular spot, i.e., the shade of gray in the pixel. Binary image data has two possible values for each pixel, black or white, which are represented by a 1-bit value (1 for back, 0 for white). Image data may be defined in terms of a color space using values such as RGB (red, green, blue) or CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) or luminance and chrominance channels such as YCbCr or L*a*b. Images that have a large range of shades of grays are referred to as grayscale images. For example, an 8-bit value comprises 256 values or shades of gray for each pixel in the image. Grayscale image data may also be referred to as continuous tone images or contone images. In some instances, binary image data may be converted to images that appear to have continuous tone by processing the data using processes such as halftoning, for example.
When image data is provided by an image input device or terminal (IIT), such as a scanner, it may be received and/or processed to input binary or contone image data. When scanning, printing or copying image data, the image data often goes through a number of image processing operations such as, but not restricted to, scaling, color space conversion, filtering, rasterization (i.e., converting image data in vector graphics format or shapes into pixels for output on a printer), and/or a number of image manipulation operations, such as middle function operations (merging, annotating, etc.) for output. That is, to send an image to an image output terminal (IOT), such as for a multifunction product (MFP) (e.g., a solid ink or toner printing device), it may be desirable to manipulate the pixels of the image data for output. For example, an input image may be scanned as contone image data, processed using a number of image processing and image manipulation operations, and then printed using converted halftone image data.
Office products such as MFPs are generally designed to manipulate image data such that the output meets the demands of the user. The office market place is demanding a higher level of image quality from office products such as MFPs, for example. Some offices may prefer that the image quality of printed documents is at a high level of quality (e.g., such as the quality used in the graphic arts industry). The image quality of an output document may rely on the image data and manipulation of the data along an image path. The image path is the path for which image data is received and processed to convert the image data to the output format that is desired.
Some offices may also require a high productivity output. Generally, devices such as MFPs measure productivity by the machines ability to multitask and produce output in a timely manner. Productivity may be limited by the bandwidth required to perform middle function operations common to copying and printing.
Office products generally receive multiple requirements depending on the industry. For example, office products must meet the demands of average office users by providing reasonable image quality at high productivity levels, and, at the same time, meet the demands of graphic arts users by providing high image quality. Sometimes these markets coexist at one location or within one organization.
Traditionally, such markets (such as the office and graphic arts industries) may be serviced by two different devices. To meet such diverse demands of multiple applications, different image paths or controllers have been provided with such office product printing devices. Some office devices utilize a binary image path to process data. Generally, processing and providing binary image data may increase the productivity as the image data is processed using a smaller bandwidth. However, the image quality of output document may be limited.
Depending on the processes performed on the image data, the manipulation of the image data in an image path may provide unforeseen disadvantages. For example, some products have attempted to meet high quality output demands by providing an image path that uses and manipulates contone image data. However, the movement of the image data along an image path may be a costly process in terms of processing power and time required for processing, particularly when using contone image data (e.g., image data with 8 bits per pixel (bpp) for each of color component/separation/plane). Thus, although processing contone data in an image path may solve problems associated with quality (i.e., by generating an image or document of a high quality output), it is more expensive to implement in office products due to the devices and manipulation used in the image path, particularly when performing concurrent operations such as printing, copying, storing, and faxing, as well as middle functions such as rotating, merging, scaling, and so forth.
Other office products, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,070, have included a plurality of processing sections that may be enabled and disabled selectively. However, enabling and disabling individual image processing sections and their functions does not address the issue of offering a high quality output at a reasonable cost. Some office printing devices, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,027, may attempt to provide a configurable image path that determines the pipeline of image processing, whether to provide an image path (e.g., to process the image data) in series or in parallel during the printing operation based on job parameters or the complexity of a job. However, such a system or apparatus only generally addresses the image process pipeline or path, and does not allow changes in bandwidth nor does it provide the ability to produce different quality outputs at varying productivity.